Windows alternative to j river?

[zenpmd]

Is there any option for really good playback? Thanks!

[Chodi]

You have good equipment so why not go for the best sound quality, HQPlayer. If you are looking for the flexibility and the graphical quality available through the many available skins, then go for the second best sound quality with foobar.

[EuroDriver]

You have good equipment so why not go for the best sound quality, HQPlayer. If you are looking for the flexibility and the graphical quality available through the many available skins, then go for the second best sound quality with foobar.

 

+ 1

[Skeptic]

HQ Player does seem like the app to use for the absolute best audio quality if you're wanting to upsample - especially if you want to play everything as DSD.

 

However nothing else is even remotely close to what JRiver offer with their library management system, tagging tools, Theater View mode, and control via JRemote. And JRiver is no slouch when it comes to audio quality either.

[Chodi]

If you are playing pcm in bit perfect only then JRiver and foobar are equal in sound quality. It then becomes a matter of choice for the features and library management. If you are playing everything in DSD or upsampling your pcm to pcm HQPlayer still smokes the other two in sound quality. For those who have a dsd player that can do dsd 128 or 256 converting redbook to dsd on the fly with HQPlayer will get amazing results that are far better than pcm output. Foobar also does a nice job of this but not as good as HQPlayer. Foobar has the advantage of being free. JRiver will convert pcm to dsd but the quality does not compare to the other two.

[Fabithierry]

MediaMonkey, Foobar, Aimp, HQplayer, Jplay

[Antoine]

I like Foobar+JPlay with the MonkeymoteHD remote app. Haven't checked out HQPlayer yet, but I will soon.

[billg]

Has anyone recently compared MediaMonkey to JRiver for best audio quality?

I use Jplaymini for serious listening but Jriver19 with Jplay otherwise, but am considering alternatives due to the Jriver foolishness.

 

I used MM before but moved to Jriver as MM didn't have play there (streaming) capability, which it now does.

[BobSherman]

Has anyone recently compared MediaMonkey to JRiver for best audio quality?

I use Jplaymini for serious listening but Jriver19 with Jplay otherwise, but am considering alternatives due to the Jriver foolishness.

 

I used MM before but moved to Jriver as MM didn't have play there (streaming) capability, which it now does.

 

Have you upgraded to Jplay V6? You can use MinimServer and Jplay streamer.

[billg]

I am on Jplay6. Im looking for a server with a great library manager like Jriver. Maybe Roon will be nice but I don't like subscription only. But yes, its probably time to try MinumServer anyway.

[Paul R]

Well, the most competitive media library manager out there right now on Windows is iTunes. It's main limit is that it will not automatically switch resolution, and a second limit being it won't catalog or play DSD. If you do not have a lot of high res material in your library, you can make iTunes perform really really well though.

 

River with JRemote is still my favorite combination. Lot of other ones out there as well.

 

HQPlayer and XXHighEnd are about he best for sound quality, though both have something less than perfect user interfaces.

 

The new "Roon" software coming out might be a good solution for you as well. Don't really know since nobody has seen it yet, but from the descriptions, it might be a good choice.

 

 

-Paul